“Herdt: Our legislative districts just too big”

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Timm Herdt, at Ventura County Star, writes about the need to increase the size of the state legislature:

It is likely not possible to propose an idea that would be more universally condemned, certainly at first blush, but hear me out:

What California needs is more legislators.

As unwelcome as that idea may seem, the conclusion is inescapable to anyone who listened to the pleas of Californians who testified this summer before the Citizens Redistricting Commission. Without fail, they said they did not want to be put in a district with other people with whom they had nothing in common and they wanted one of their own to represent them.

Under the system we’ve got, that isn’t possible.

The size of the Legislature — 80 Assembly members, 40 senators — was established in 1879. At the time, there were fewer than 1 million people living here.